TruthScape.com  9  TruthScape Skill Secrets       9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore            9  TruthScape Skill Secrets - Herblore - The Best Methods for Obtaining Herbs                 9  Effective Combat Techniques for Fighting Primary Herb Droppers

Banshees (Level 23, Slayer Level 15) Aberrant Spectres (Level 96, Slayer Level 60)

Flesh crawlers were once a little-known secret. I can remember going there about a year ago, and being surprised at both how good their drops were and how few people were fighting them. The news is out now, though: flesh crawlers combine plenty of herbs with a fine set of secondary drops, making them an excellent monster for those training Herblore and other skills. And they even have some interesting combat characteristics that make them easier to fight than other herb droppers.

These critters look like oversized, yellow and brown bugs; they live in a few different rooms on the second floor of the Stronghold of Security. They are simple level 28 melee monsters with only 25 hitpoints, so they are quick and easy to kill. They also have a somewhat unique characteristic among monsters outside the Wilderness: they are aggressive to players of all levels. This is very useful for those with higher combat levels, as it means more kills per hour with less clicking.

Here are the main stats of flesh crawlers:

• Name: Flesh Crawler
  
  
• Combat Level: 28
  
  
• Slayer Level: n/a
  
  
• Hitpoints: 25
  
  
• Attack Style: Melee (magic-based)
  
  
• Maximum Hit: 1
  
  
• Combat Zone: Single
  
  
• Aggressive: Yes, to all levels
  
  
• Special Attacks: None
  
  
• Special Defences: None
  
  
• Special Equipment Required: None
  
  
• High-Level Player Kill Rate: 400 per hour
  
  
• Herb Drop Rate: 120 per hour

Flesh crawlers are found on the second floor of the Stronghold of Security. To get there, teleport to Edgeville and then walk to Barbarian Village, then go down the hole in the center of town to enter the first level of the stronghold. Go through the portal in the southeast corner of the entry room to bypass the maze, taking you to the center of the first level, then climb down the ladder to the second level.

The best place to fight the flesh crawlers is in the large room in the southeast of the level. To get there:

1. Go through the portal, which takes you to the center of the second level.
   
   
2. Pass through the double doors to the southeast.
   
   
3. Go past another set of double doors just south of there.
   
   
4. Go through a small maze with zombies until you get to a third set of double doors oriented west-to-east.
   
   
5. Pass these final doors to get into a room with seven flesh crawlers.

Flesh crawlers have become quite popular of late, so you should expect to find other players in the area. There are seven in the room, though, and they respawn fast, so one or two other players isn’t a problem. World hop if there are more than that.

You can range or mage flesh crawlers, but once again, meleeing is fastest if you are looking to get the most drops in a given amount of time.

These monsters rarely hit and have a maximum hit of just 1, so most players can get by with nearly any form of armor. Only the lowest-level players need to bother bringing food. Take a good weapon for fast kills.

Bring a super attack and/or super strength potion to speed things up if you wish, though it’s not really necessary. I recommend bringing a Summoning pouch as well, and since these are relatively far from a bank, you might want to make it a beast of burden.

Bring with swamp tar and a pestle and mortar to make harralander tar, and water vials to make Serum 207 from the tarromins and ashes the crawlers drop. (They don’t drop ashes often, so you might want to just bring ash potions instead.)

Flesh crawlers drop about 120 grimy herbs per hour (sometimes more), and have several other noteworthy drops (Figure 180). These include huge quantities of fire runes, decent amounts of body, dust and nature runes, and both noted and unnoted iron ore (of which you’ll likely keep only the noted ones, to leave space for herbs). Dust runes combine air and earth runes and are cheaper than either individually; they are quite useful. Flesh crawlers also drop one of the four parts of the sceptre you can make to allow you to teleport to Barbarian Village, and they now even drop Summoning charms.

Here are the results of a 30-minute test using a whip and rune defender, standard armor, and no potions, summons or other enhancers:

• 100% Drops: None
  
  
• Herbs: 18 guam, 11 marrentill, 9 tarromin, 12 harralander, 6 ranarr, 1 irit, 5 avantoe, 5 kwuarm, 1 cadantine, 2 lantadyme, 3 dwarf weed.
  
  
• Runes: 2,730 fire, 114 dust, 30 nature, 160 body.
  
  
• Gold: 494 coins.
  
  
• Charms: 2 gold, 10 green.
  
  
• Other: 130 iron ore (noted), 9 iron ore (unnoted), 7 ashes, 6 sceptre bottom pieces, 7 silver bars, 2 uncut sapphires, 1 uncut emerald.

Note that this was an uncharacteristically productive trip from an herb perspective: 23 herbs ranarr and over in a half hour is above average, and the 3 dwarf weeds were a pure fluke. Just so you don’t get your hopes too high. J

Here are a few extra tips:

• Be on the lookout for drops left behind by other players. This may slow you down somewhat in terms of the number of herbs you get, but all those runes add up quickly. I’ve even seen people leaving behind noted iron ore!
  
  
• If you are tired of answering the security questions posed by the doors for the millionth time, click on them over and over until they let you pass.
  
  
• For low-level players, the rats in the area can be killed for bones if you want to use the Bones to Peaches spell or tablets.

Banshees (Level 23, Slayer Level 15) Aberrant Spectres (Level 96, Slayer Level 60)